Reproduced from a Media Bullseye article on March 30, 2009

Unless you have shut off your Twitter feed lately, you have probably heard of Robert Scoble’s somewhat incendiary comments regarding the public relations industry. In audio comments, Scoble painted the industry with an unflatteringly broad brush:

• “PR is dead. The way that PR is practiced is just..lame.”
• “Most of PR has ’sucked.’ If you think it’s not, just be a blogger for a little while. And watched the thousands of stupid-ass pitches flow through your screen.”
• “Anybody who pitches you on email is stupid. The chance that I am going to listen to anyone who pitches me email on frikkin’ email is one percent.”

Well, many of us who practice public relations for a living took some serious offense to this. I wrote a first blog post, (Shut Up, Mr. Scoble) and then when he took on Alice Marshall of Presto Vivace, I penned another (”Put a “Cewebrity” in His Place – But You Can’t Fix Stupid“). I was pretty angry, as were the aforementioned Alice Marshall as well as the highly respected Robert French of Auburn University. Both pointed out that Mr. Scoble’s preferred method of being pitched, over dinner, reeked of, as Professor French put it “Wine Me & Dine Me (or, I’ll whine about bad PR).”

But enough of my rancor. More reasoned, respected people like Jason Falls and David Wescott had some good points as well.

Jason commented on my blog:

“Robert is guilty of one thing – generalizing. Does he get a lot of bad pitches? Yep. So do I (probably not as many, I’m sure). Do a lot of PR folks suck these days? Yeah. Does the industry need a time out to revamp itself? Yes. But does someone like Scoble need to say, “PR SUCKS” as if all PR does? Hell no.”

Fair enough. David Wescott noted:

“I’m coming to realize there’s something worse than believing you’re a big deal by reading your press clippings – it’s believing you’re a big deal by looking at the number of followers you have on twitter. I’m not saying that’s where Scoble is, but comments like that don’t exactly convince me otherwise.”

A week into this, my thoughts have turned somewhat inward – meaning to those of us who do public relations and social media for a living and ask the “Scobelistic Question”: Do we suck?

Yes and no.

Aside from acting self-absorbed, Scoble whined about a mere sliver of public relations – pitching – and said that the whole industry is “lame.” And that comment is, well, lame. But more importantly, are there people who make bad pitches? Absolutely.

Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, both of whom I consider “A-Listers” and produce their excellent “For Immediate Release” podcast (and who first brought this topic to my attention), stated that they both get lots of bad pitches via email.

Time for a little self-examination.

I no longer work for a public relations agency, but was in the business for about 15 years and began, as most young bucks do – by pitching people who did not necessarily want to be pitched. And got hung up on a lot. So the other night in my class at Georgetown, I asked my students what was preventing them from creating the “magical experiences” that Scoble seems to demand with his free meals. What I heard back was pretty instructive – and confirmed, from my small focus group, what I had long believed prevents people from innovating more:

• Billing pressure. When you work for an agency, your job is to bill as much as you can, and quite often, falling back on old ways is the best way to make your hours. Brutal, but I believe it to be true.
• Clients are in love with statistics. Many clients would rather hear “we pitched 2,000 bloggers,” (spam, of course), than “we did our research, waited and make 10 carefully crafted pitches to 10 leading bloggers.” 2,000 versus 10? Please.
• Clients or supervisors who don’t “get” social media are reluctant to green light innovation. The “young bucks” generation in public relations agencies have a hard time selling concepts that are new and people don’t yet understand.
• The pressure. The higher you go in agencies, the more pressure you have to bill hours, supervise people, develop businesses and further existing client relationships. “Creating magic” takes some serious time – and thinking.

Bottom line? I think that Scoble is self-absorbed, but has clearly earned his media spotlight. And the public relations industry does indeed churn out some really bad pitches. But we don’t suck.

Is it worth painting the entire industry as “dead” and “lame?” Not unless you have no idea what you are talking about.

Mark

Boy, has there been lots of commentary and discussion this week about Robert Scoble’s comments regarding the public relations profession.

I heard it on “For Immediate Release,” blogged about it, had my post included in one made by Alice Marshall at Presto Vivace and listened to the debate continue on “For Immediate Release.”  And that’s just what I was paying attention to.  Imagine if I had actually done something like a Technorati search.

Ron White is one of my favorite comedians and he got it right when he said “you can’t fix stupid.”  Read below to see how prophetic Ron’s words actually are.

When I saw that Alice’s blog had mentioned my little rant, I read her comments section – and the SCOBELIZER himself weighed in, as did Shel Holtz, the co-host of the excellent “”For Immediate Release” podcast.  Alice’s post was fairly measured, compared to my frothing at the mouth:

Wow, OK, Scoble says it is much more valuable to him to be offered a scrumptious dinner and convivial conversation with the pitch at the end. Congratulations to Brian Solis for building such a valuable relationship. Pardon me if I don’t follow his example.

Listening to Scoble’s rant gave me new respect for reporters like Joab Jackson, Chris Dorobek, Roger Hughlett, and so many others who put their readers first and don’t expect to be wined and dined.

Measured stuff.

Now read the comments section.

Scoble: It’s not about wining and dining. You totally missed the point. This morning I met a CEO at http://www.kyte.tv/scobleizer and recorded what he told me. That is FAR better than getting a clueless PR pitch via email. I think people like you need to come and be on our side of the fence once in a while. You’d be horrified to see what comes through.

Insult-o-meter ranking: moderate with two snarky comments

Open mouth, insert foot, chomp vigorously.  Keep digging, Robert.

Scoble: Whether or not I’m a journalist (I’m currently not) is not really the right point to make. I talk with TONS of journalists and I haven’t had one tell me they like what is coming through their email stream. In fact, one of the best tech journalists I know (he was key in getting the DOJ to look at Microsoft) is Dan Gillmor. You might read up on his PR suggestions: http://steverubel.typepad.com/micropersuasion/2004/07/dan_gillmor_to_.html — they sound an awful lot like mine. Oh, and everytime there’s a dinner there’s usually a lot of journalists in the room, so I think wining and dining works with even “real” journalists.

Insult-o-meter ranking: moderate, with condescension

Scoble: Alice: I read all my emails. Love that you think you have my readers best interests in mind. Not based on the PR emails I get. Yes, I get a few good ones. But they are so buried in the bad ones that it’s funny to watch PR people try to defend the industry. PR people really do need to live on the other side of the fence. By the way, it’s very hard for me to pick out a good product’s pitch from a bad one’s via email. I need to SEE it. I do video, which, luckily, keeps me honest that way.

Insult-o-meter ranking: moderate, with increasing condescension

And finally, the lid blows off:

Scoble: Sorry if I made it sound like you must wine and dine me. Yesterday’s interview proves otherwise. I wasn’t wined and dined for that. I didn’t receive anything. I was SHOWN a product live, though, and didn’t receive a stupid email pitch. I love how you are making it about something lame like wining and dining. TOTALLY the wrong point to focus on, but that figures. If that’s the kind of “journalism” you did, no wonder you aren’t a journalist anymore.

Ask around: almost ALL of the videos I did in my career didn’t happen because I got some stupid food. Geesh.

Insult-o-meter ranking: high, showing thin skin and insults

But wait!   There’s more!

Scoble: NONE of my videos ever were done for money and if you think some $20 dinner is gonna be worth selling my soul for, you aren’t worth the time of day.

Insult-o-meter ranking: very high, showing even thinner skin and enhanced insults

Scoble seems to be a legend in his own mind, which reminds me of Jason Falls’ post last summer, “Friday Frustrations,” in which he brought up a valid point:

Social Media Influencers Are Not Celebrities

A-list bloggers have an awfully bad habit of blowing smoke up each other’s asses. I’m probably guilty of it, too, though I don’t consider myself an A-lister, but for chrissakes people, you’re not celebrities so stop acting like them.

Jason also commented on my post last week so I have to confess to stealing the term “cewebrity” from him (can anyone get Elmer Fudd out of their heads when they say the word out loud?)

It’s a great read.  And guys, here’s the point. The more you give gas bags like this a platform to pontificate, the worse it’s going to get.  I completely cop to occasionally having written just to gin up a little controversy, but generally trying not to be pompous and insulting, while maintaining an astonishing level of cluelessness.

What a person to do?  When a fan base gets frustrated with a lousy team or lousy owner, they stop attending the games.  I am pretty convinced that the only way to stop having to listen to this garbage is to remove the microphone.  If you agree with any of the above:

1. Stop reading Scoble’s blog
2. Stop following him on Twitter and his other social media platforms.
3. Take away his soap boax.

I know I did – but a long time ago.

Mark

I have never been a Robert Scoble fan, and this one sealed the deal.  I’m pissed. Big time.

In recent comments that he made on Blog Talk Radio that I discovered on “For Immediate Release,” Mr. Scoble went on to make a series of increasingly stupid comments, among them:

• “PR is dead.  The way that PR is practiced is just..lame.”
• “Most of PR has ’sucked.’  If you think it’s not, just be a blogger for a little while. And watched the thousands of stupid-ass pitches flow through your screen.”
• “Anybody who pitches you on email is stupid.  The chance that I am going to listen to anyone who pitches me email on frikkin’ email is one percent.”
• [Someone] showed me a block of wood…that was better than the stupid-ass pitches I get in email.”
• People who stand up for the PR industry, they just don’t get it.”

Public relations is:

• lame
• sucks
• stupid-ass

OK.   You get my point. Listen to the audio and you will hear someone who, to me, sounds a) wildly inarticulate, b) whines like a Hollywood celebrity who didn’t get the right kind of mayo on his chicken salad, and c) has no problem using profanity to, in a blanket fashion, insult the livelihood of thousands and thousands of public relations practitioners.  Are there people who “don’t get it?”  Sure.  Do people make pitches that are of base and inappropriate?  Absolutely.  Are there public relations practitioners who pitch via email?  Sure – IF IT IS THE ONLY MEDIUM AVAILABLE TO THEM.

Mr. Scoble needs to realize that he is complaining about the very celebrity that he himself created.  You cannot have it both ways.

If you become an A-Lister and make a good living (while many of very good public relations people in this country are being laid off, by the way) it is beyond self-absorption to complain about “stupid-ass pitches” that you receive because of the very notoriety that you sought, built and benefit from.  You even mentioned that you get pitches from people who are panicked that their companies are going to go out of business – and call them “lame.”  There’s some compassion.

And as for your preferred method of “… having someone come over and have dinner with me and tell me that something is cool,” please feel free to do a post letting people know your address and I am sure that you will have no scarcity of folks coming over for dinner.  Or hire a social secretary who can make the appointments for you.

Final thought?

Mr. Scoble, stop whining.  Maybe you could switch places with a few of those public relations people  who “suck” and realize just how hard their jobs are – and how desperately they are clinging to them.

Mark

Todd Defren’s “PR Squared” post entitled “The Value of PR Agencies, Part II of ???” got me all in a lather – again and is largely a reason, why, after 13 years of being on the agency side of things, I packed in it an decided to go in house.  Recently, there have been a rash of postings from bloggers who openly question the value of public relations if you have a killer product.

And it went on…

Many of the blogosphere’s “luminaries,” or as Jason Falls puts it, guys who “blow smoke up each others’ asses,” got into the fray, including Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington and Steve Rubel.   These admittedly a-list bloggers have built followings that I am assuming have grown organically, thus reinforcing the notion that is you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.  I have to admit my own ignorance of Messers Scoble, Arrington and Rubel’s professional provenance, but anyone who has toiled within the recesses of a large public relations firm can knock this one out of the park in about thirty seconds.  This is elitist, perhaps wishful thinking.

Here is a quote that I think sums up their point:

Scoble, Rubel and Arrington basically made the point that PR firms are unnecessary if you have a great product and are willing to spend a lot of time engaging in the blogosphere.”

Confession:  I am biased because I sold these services in for more than a decade, and it puts a real burr under my saddle when people wax poetic or romantic about the “next killer app” that will grow organically and not need good public relations strategy or tactical execution.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to justify my existence on this planet on a regular basis or listen to a client tell me a) he/she is cutting my budget, or b) that a good public relations plan is “unnecessary.”

After smiling politely I looked like the guy in the picture above.

But fear not,Todd jumps into the fray with not one but two good defenses of the public relations industry.  In this first post, Why Hire a PR Firm?, instead of laying things, out, he shows video of a client (and that’s who matters, by the way), detailing out why public relations is important:

Mike Volpe, VP Marketing HubSpot – Value of PR Firms

But as so many things do in the blogosphere, this one kept coming back like a bad meal, or one of the zombies in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

Then Todd came back with a wonderful, succinct response from yet another client about the value of public relations agencies:

Samantha Stone, VP Marketing, Dataupia – Value of a PR Firm

As usual, when others say it better than I can, I don’t have a lot to add, except a suggestion that anyone who thinks that a well-planned, intelligently executed public relations (or marketing public relations) plan is superfluous for a killer app, ask either:

1. someone who has worked in a public relations agency and see a client’s (or more likely, potential client’s) product die on the vine for lack of effective public relations; or
2. anyone out there who is sitting on the next Twitter who can’t get exposure.

‘Nuff said.

Mark